According to a report in Thursday’s Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean daily newspaper, a firm engaged in developing a mining project in North Korea on behalf of a Chinese investment company has abruptly withdrawn due to the international sanctions placed on its North Korean partner, Korea Mining Trading Development Corporation (KOMID).
The report says that the unnamed Chinese investor recently sent a letter to NHI Shenyang Mining Machinery, which it had commissioned to construct facilities for the bronze mine in Hyesan, on the border between North Korea and China, instructing it to cease operations.
KOMID was blacklisted by the U.S. Department of the Treasury on June 30th, calling it “North Korea’s premier arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons.”
A source allegedly told the Chosun Ilbo, “When Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visited Pyongyang in June last year, he pledged full support for the development of the Hyesan bronze mine so that it could become a model for investment by Chinese business in North Korea. This prompted NHI to hurry construction so that production could start in September this year.”
The source suggested that for an economic project of this nature to be halted at such a late stage and after such a ringing endorsement would require the intervention of the Chinese government.
